Fossil Friday, Monday Answer!

Last week's puzzler was a photo of a pre-historic animal from an undisclosed southern California location.

The answer: It's an American Lion from the La Brea Tar Pits! Kudos to Dan Coleman for figuring it out.

From the San Diego Natural History Museum's website: "Panthera atrox is the scientific name of the extinct American lion that lived throughout much of North America during the later part of the Pleistocene (approximately 120,000 to 10,000 years ago). Fossil remains of this species have been found in the American Southwest, Midwest, Southeast, and Alaska, as well as parts of Mexico. The American lion closely resembled the modern African lion, but was about 25% larger and heavier than the living species."